LABOR DAY, 1st of may, a perfect day to labor through the canal and gather some bins of plastic trash from the water. Nele, our future guide made everybody feel at ease.

Nathalie signed up together with Jose who is a Yacht captain. A very fun couple from Brussels and being at home on the water they were off in no time.

At the same time Miles, from the UK, and Nele took off as well for their trash quest. Miles is part of Young Water Solutions , an international non-profit organisation that supports local young entrepreneurs bring water and sanitation solutions to their communities in need for clean water and sanitation. Miles lives in Brussels since 1,5 years and already masters the french language.

Aurélien and his 5-year old daughter Coline, came all the way from Huy! Coline, part of our future, was well informed about recycling and being kind to nature. Despite her age, she already learns a lot about it at school. Aurélien is her proud father and also was very aware and interested in making this world a better place.

Nina and Silke, two strong girls studying architecture at Sint-Lucas in Brussels, joined us for a school project. And it was their professor who gave them the tip! Their motivation and kindness was great! They even didn’t mind to take the train back to Leuven in their wet (stinky) clothes.

Together with them, Delphine and her family, Jean-Yves, Zoé and Milo took place in the kayaks. This Brussels family came by metro and succeeded to find some nature in the otherwise quite dead canal, their whole kayak was covered in  plant seeds.

Afterwards, Margot and Livia, students in journalism, joined us as well for a school assignment about the interesting canal area. After fishing for trash an interview took place to write their article. Apparently Canal It Up is the go-to organisation for students which makes us feel our importance and the potential of improvement in the area.

To finish another day of fishing for trash, the couple of four (or double couple, double trouble) bravely went out on the water. Bastien, Jarl and Pauline organised the trip for Lauren’s birthday one month ago (Since she had the same name as me she deserved a bonus smile :)). Bastien brought an analoge camera to picture the canal area, we are very curious to see the result.